Webquest Oct 2014Name: ______

Due Oct 22/23rd, at the beginning of your scheduled class for full credit. You may access this sheet through my webpage. Take your Sargent Welch periodic table to the library with you to the library!

  1. Understanding the smallest of the 3 major subatomic particles (the electrons) is a very important and challenging part of chemistry. Launch the video, “atoms, the space between”, found at - in order to listen to what some of today’s physicists are saying about atoms and their electrons. Note what you find interesting.

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  1. We are about to begin a unit on “ionic bonding”, in which you will learn how atoms of metallic elements bond (connect) together with atoms of nonmetal elements. As part of this unit, we will briefly study how electrons are organized within single atoms (a single atom is a neutral atom that has not yet bonded to a different atom). After you understand how electrons are organized within single neutral atoms, you will be more likely to understand what happens as ionic bonding occurs.

One thing to remember: When “an element is reactive,” it means that, the atoms in the element have an arrangement of electrons that isn’t stable; and given a chance, those atoms will change so that they have a new arrangement of electrons that is more stable.

Launch the video,“what makes an element reactive”, to better understand how reactive atoms become more stable, which is located at - Please answer the questions below as you watch the video.

A. Why are noble gases called by that name? ______

B. What happens when an electric current is run through a noble gas? ______

C. Why are the noble gases “aloof” (inert)? (What makes a “happy satisfied atom”)______

D. How many electrons may be found in the 1st shell of an atom? ______2nd shell? ______3rd shell? _____

E. What can be said of the outer shell of electrons in the group called the halogens? ______

F. Why was chlorine gas used as a deadly poison in WWI? And, what will it steal from a kitten? ______G. What about the alkali metals, what do their shells look like, and what would they like to do? ______

  1. As you have noticed, often scientists identify groups of elements by what is called their family name (such as “the halogens” or “the alkali metals”). To better understand the location of different families of elements, access the link: Click the pull down arrow by the word “groups”. One-by-one click on the alkali metals, the alkaline earth metals, the halogens, and the noble gases. Using a very light colored pencil (and very light pressure), color each family of elements by a different color, and identify these columns by their “family name” on your periodic table. Last, use a darker pencil to outline the separation between the “metals”, “metalloids”, and “non-metals” on your table.
  1. Launch the video found at the website below and answer the questions as you watch it:
  1. As an alkali metal, what is sodium desperate to do? ______
  1. At the atomic level, what has happened to make them stable? ______
  2. What did they both end up with? ______
  3. What is the name of the compound formed after sodium and chlorine have combined (have reacted)? ______. What do ordinary people call this compound? ______
  4. Sodium and chlorine are both deadly, is the compound made from them deadly? ______F. How elements come together to form compounds is all about ______.
  1. Before going to the next website, you should add a few more things to your periodic table. At the top of the alkali metal column located, draw an “X” with 1 dot along its upper side. Above the alkaline earth metal column, draw an “X” with 1 dot along its upper side an1dot along its right side. Above Boron’s column, carbon’s column, nitrogen’s column, and oxygen’s column, place an “X” with consecutively 3 dots, 4 dots, 5 dots, and 6 dots (putting only 1 dot along each side of the X until all 4 sides are occupied, and then continuing to add 1 more dot to each side as needed). Above the halogen column place an “X” with 7 dots, and above the noble gases, place an “X” with 8 dots (4 pairs of dots, 1 pair on each side of the X).

The X represents the symbol for any element in the column beneath it. The dots represent the number of “valence electrons” in each atom of the elements in that column. Valence electrons are the most important electrons in an atom, as they are the “outer-most” electrons, which are the ones that cause instability in a neutral atom. Now, go to this website and launch the interactive “quiz” and see how well you do: Note – when they talk about “series”, they mean, “row of the periodic table”. There are 7 rows, starting with # 1, the top row with only H and He. What score did you earn on the quiz> ______

  1. Valence electrons can be referred to as either “s orbital electrons” or “p orbital electron.s” Watch what happens as we move along a few rows of the periodic table (“Dave’s whizzy periodic table”) at this website -

[The website should open correctly on “shell view”.] In the center of the beige square, you should barely see a black speck – this is the nucleus.

Click one-by-one through the elements in the periodic table, starting with Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, etc… and watch what is happening to the right of the square as you continue clicking. Notice there are at most only ever 2 s orbital electrons of one color. Notice that there are at most only ever 6 p orbital electrons of one color. And, notice that there can be 10 d orbital electrons. After clicking on Krypton, look at the “energy ladder” to the right of the beige square. Fill in the blanks below:

How many pink electrons are there? _____. These are electrons on Krypton’s “first shell”.

How many yellow electrons are there? ____. These are electrons on Krypton’s “second shell”.

How many green electrons are there? ______. These are electrons on Krypton’s “third” shell.

How many blue electrons are there? ______. These are electrons on Krypton’s “fourth” shell, which is also Krypton’s “outer-most” shell (sometimes called the “highest-occupied” energy level).

It is more correct to call a layer of electrons an “energy level” instead of a “shell” because, the electron’s within a shell are there together because they have a very similar energy, as shown by the list of ionization energies (given in “eV” (electron Volts) written to the far right of the ladder).

The outer-most shell of electrons contains electrons which are the easiest to remove from an atom; and, if you look closely you will notice that the eV scale is a logarithmic scale.

When your textbook talks about an energy ladder with the rungs at the top being closer spaced than the rungs at the bottom – it is referring to this log scale of energies.

Last of all, ionization energy, simple put, is the amount of energy needed to rip an electron away from an isolated atom. The lower the ionization energy, the easier to steal an electron from the atom.

  1. Now go to

Click on “next atom” several times. Click several more times. Watch what is happening to the model of the atom as you click. The arrows denote electrons. Look very closely at the colored rings, and find where it says, “s” “p” “d” “f”. – Is there ever a time when either an electron in a“d” or “f” orbital lies farther away from the nucleus thanall of the other electrons? (yes or no) ______Should it be said that.the outermost electrons are always found in either “s” and/or “p” orbitals? (yes or no) ______

  1. Now go to Click on the TAB that says, “electron configuration” prior to doing anything else!!!!

Click on hydrogen in the periodic table, then helium, then lithium, then beryllium, boron, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, fluorine, etc. and watch what happens on the energy ladder. Each square represents an “orbital” (a region of space where an electron is likely to be found); and, each arrow represents one electron. You can see that as you go across the table element by element, one more electron is being added (because each consecutive element has one more proton in its nucleus, thus one more electron also). Watch the number of arrows that go into orbitals, the directions of the up and down arrows, and how the orbitals are filled. Try to find a few patterns. What patterns do you see?

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Is there consistency when electrons are seen going into the “s and p orbitals”? ______

Is there consistency when the electrons are seen going into the “d orbitals”? ______

  1. Now go to and build the 4 atoms that it asks you to build. A few words of advice: This is tricky.. Things to know:

1 “s” orbital goes in before any “p” orbitals. An “s” orbital only gets 2 electrons max.

1 “p” orbital only gets 2 electrons max, but 3 “p” orbitals need to be put in place before you can put in an electron in any of the 3 of them…. And you have to spread the electrons apart in each of the 3 p orbitals before doubling up.

The orbitals are arranged in their correct order (choose them from left to right) – You just need to figure out how many orbitals to use based on the number of electrons that are in the atom you are working on. If you understand that an atom has an “atomic number” that is equal to its number of electrons, this becomes easier. Give it a go! They will tell you what you are doing wrong as you do it.

  1. Now that you have some understanding of electrons in isolated neutral atoms, you can now start trying to understand “ionic bonding” – what occurs as two different atoms join togetherand become more stable in their number of and arrangement of electrons.

Go to this website:

And answer these questions:

a. How does an atom become an ion?

b. Why do they do this?

c. What does it leave the atom’s electron structure the same as?

d. Why does an ion have an overall electrical charge?

e. What is the best way for a non-metal atom to achieve this?

f. What becomes positively charged? What becomes negatively charged?

g. What is similar between neon and a sodium ion?

h. What is different?

i. What gives sodium ion its positive charge?

j. If an atom loses 2 electrons, what charge does it get?

k. How does fluorine become a fluoride ion?

l. What is similar between neon and a fluoride ion? What is different? What is the symbol for fluoride ion?

m. If an atom gains 2 electrons, what charge does it get?

n. What is called an ionic bond?

o. Describe how calcium bonds with chloride to form calcium chloride?

11. Thisnext website will explain a few things concerning the sizes of neutral isolated atoms compared to the sizes of anions and cations:

As you go through this interactive tutorial, answer the questions found below:

  1. How does the size of a sodium atom change as it becomes a sodium ion?
  2. How does the size of a chlorine atom change as it becomes a chloride ion?
  3. What comes first, the swap of an electron, or the very strong attraction?
  4. How is it that an “ionic crystal” forms from individual ion pairs?
  5. Are there distinct “molecules” in an ionic crystal?
  6. What does the formula in an ionic compound tell us?
  7. What does it NOT imply?
  8. In the small crystal of calcium fluoride, how many of each ion were there?
  9. What would be the smallest ratio of ions for a crystal of calcium fluoride?

Now that you understand a little about bonding, try this compound building interactive; have some fun with it.

Helpful hints: don’t let 2 cations touch…..and don’t let 2 anions touch. Bring a cation and anion together till they touch. Fill all the indentations with the points. If there are extra indentations or points, bring in more ions till no extras are left. OH is hydroxide, NO3 is nitrate, SO3 is sulfite, SO4 is sulfate, PO4 is phosphate, and CO3 is carbonate.